Covered here is a collection of concepts and how-tos that for the lack of a better method, are collected loosely under this heading:

Duplicating CDs & DVDs

If you have the money, pickup Roxio Toast for all of your optical media needs. Copying and authoring CDs and DVDs is made incredibly easy using their simple and intuitive interface. Unfortunately, UM Saint Louis doesn’t provide this app on its standard Macintosh lab workstation. In truth, however, it isn’t required. Most of your needs will be answered using OS X’s built-in application, Disk Utility. While certainly not as intuitive as Toast, Disk Utility makes disk duplication a relatively painless process once you know what you’re doing … which just so happens to be the purpose of this section.

NOTE: Disk Utility is useless for copy-protected DVDs that use Content Scramble System (CSS) encryption or a similar method of Digital Rights Management (DRM). Don’t even try and certainly do not expect support from University lab consultants.

Create CD/DVD Master Image

We need to begin by creating a disk image that we can use later to make as many copies as we’ll need:

Be certain to select DVD/CD master for Image Format

Insert your master CD or DVD

Wait for the operating system to recognize the disk and perform its default action. Quit DVD Player if it is launched for DVD playback.

In the Convert Image dialog (above):Save As: Name the image the way you’d like it to appear on your copied DVD/CDWhere: I recommend saving to the Desktop, but anywhere is fineImage Format: select DVD/CD masterEncryption: none

Save

Be patient, this is going to take awhile depending on the size of the disc. Full CD-Rs with about 700 MB of data will take maybe about 10-15 minutes, DVD-Rs using 4.7 GB will take up to 45-60 minutes, and DVD-R DLs using 8.5 GB will nearly double that time. 1

Burning the CD/DVD Master to a Blank Disk

A new section will appear in the in the Disk Utility listing your new disc image

By comparison, this part is easy!

Insert a blank DVD/CD of equivalent size

Typically, OS X’s will open a dialog were you can choose to open iDVD, iTunes, Disk Utility, etc. We already have Disk Utility open so click Ignore if it does pop up

Highlight your disc image in Disk Utility by clicking on it

Click Burn to the upper left of Disk Utility

That’s it, now Be patient : )

Again, this is going to take a long while. So proceed with other work while you wait. Good news is if you need to burn multiple copies, simple repeat the steps above.

Convert DVD Chapters to Quicktime Format

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you have a DRM-free DVD that you have permission (for academic purposes) to duplicate in whole or part, a TLC Floor Staff member will be happy to assist you. Please note, however, that illegally duplicating copyrighted material with University resources is a violation of UM Saint Louis’ Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and can serve as grounds for disciplinary action on the part of the University or greater governing body.

There are many legitimate reasons to convert portions of a DRM-free DVD to a portable file format such as Quicktime: Self-authored DVDs needing to be converted into a streamable format (i.e. for a student e-portfolio), a fair-use sampling of proprietary work, or even a copyright holder approved duplication.

Typically, this is a job for iMovie; creating either a montage and/or several sample slices. Unfortunately, iMovie does not make it easy to import anything even from DRM-free DVDs … frustrating!

Enter HandBrake. Handbrake is free software licensed under the GNU GPL that is able to re-encode DVD VOB files into just about any file format. For our iMovie interests, however, our target format is Quicktime.

Handbrake is not installed on any campus machines. Luckily, Handbrake for OS X is considered portable. That is, it doesn’t need to be installed by an administrator to be used. Merely download the correct version of the application and launch it from its disk image.2 If this seems confusing, just ask a floor staff member to give you a hand.

Handbrake, as you can see, has a daunting interface. Make use of the presets window to the right of the interface to select common conversion settings.

Insert the DVD that you’d like to convert from (Quit Apple’s DVD Player application once/if it launches)

Open Handbrake

Handbrake will automatically scroll out the Select Source dialog, click on the Source tool if it doesn’t

Select your DVD from the left-hand pane of that dialog, click Open

Select the desired Title and Chapters you’d like to export, use the duration notation to assist for DVDs with multiple titles

Select QuickTime from the Presets drawer

Change the Destination folder and filename if desired

Click on the Start tool

Depending on the length of your selection, this can take a LONG time. My 1 hour title took over an hour to transcode. Unfortunately, it going to take several times longer to import this re-encoded into iMovie. Maybe a day or more!!

Import DVD using iMovie ’08 +

A far faster method (suggested by this thread) to import a DRM-free DVD than the method suggested above is available to users using iMovie ’08 and above. iMovie ’09, however, would be the best choice in that iMovie ’08 has profound limitations with this method in that it can only import from DVD having less than 1.9 GB of video content. Users attempting to import any more than this amount will cause iMovie to crash. iMovie 09, reportedly, has remedied this limitation.

After making a Apple disk image of a DVD (and mounting that image), iMovie 08 and above sees it as camera and will ask if you want to import its contents.

Insert your DRM-free DVD

Wait for the operating system to recognize the disk and perform its default action. Quit DVD Player if it is launched for DVD playback.

Go → Utilities → Disk Utility

Select the optical drive where your DVD was inserted from the left-hand pane

Once Disk Utility finishes, double click on the resulting disk image to mount it

Launch iMovie (this will not work with iMovie HD and below)

iMovie will see the mounted disk image as it would see any other HDD based camcorder and will ask if you’d like to import from it

By default, iMovie is set up to import the entire contents. If you’d like only certain sections, switch the toogle at the lower left from Automatic to Manual, place a checkmark next to the clips you want, and finally click Import All (or Import Checked)

I think you’ll notice that this is not only faster than importing real-time, as you would with a DV based camcorder; it is far far faster than the previous method.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Little can impress friends and peers more than knowing the right keyboard commands to get things done more efficiently and effectively. Though most of the following actions can be accomplished using the Finder’s interface, these commands will certainly improve your experience with the Mac OS by adding functionality and saving you from some of the more mundane tasks associated with regular use. For a complete list of keyboard shortcuts, be certain to visit this Apple Knowledgebase article.

⌘+a Select all items or text in active window⌘+c Copy selected item or text to clipboard⌘+x Cut selected item or text to clipboard⌘+v Paste contents of clipboard to location⌘+z Undo last action(s)⌘+i Get info on selected item such as file size⌘+shift+a Open the Application folder⌘+⌥+Esc Brings up the Force Quit Applications menu to kill a frozen application ⌥+drag Copy an item instead of moving it.⌘+shift+3 Creates a picture of the entire screen (Sends .png file to your Desktop)⌘+shift+4 Creates a picture of a rectangular portion of the screen by dragging a box around it with your mouse after releasing keys⌘+shift+4, then spacebar Creates a picture of a selected window or element

Times will vary depending on the speed of the machines processor and the read rate of the optical drive [↩]

Note that at the time of this writing, you’ll need to use a previous version of Handbrake (0.9.1) for Mac OS X 10.4, which is what the UMSL currently runs [↩]